I read a post over at PHPKitchen that echo’s the same experiences I’ve had at work in pushing us to use a Wiki to collect knowledge and document processes. Some quick lessons:
- Word is too cumbersome for trying to whip out a document real quick.
- Word makes it too easy to focus on the presentation and not the content.
- Word locks up the information in a file (not easily searched) and is not available on all platforms.
- Wiki’s let you focus on the information, with the ability to control some formatting
- Wiki’s let you jot down or read a document anytime, from anywhere on the web.
- Wiki’s pages are easily searchable.
- A wiki will organically organize your documents via internal links. This will be a bone of contention for strict taxonomy/hierarchy minded individuals.